This Saturday, Ann, her sister Jenny, Jenny's boyfriend Kevin and I went to the Beeradvocate.com Extreme Beer Festival. What an amazing selection of beer! My personal favorites were:

• Sam Adams 3 Weiss Men (9.7%ABV) - a double-strength Hefe-Weizen
  
• Sam Adams Utopias (25%) - the strongest beer in the world
  
• Harpoon Barleywine (10.3%) - a very mellow barleywine, not as hoppy as most American versions
  
• Magic Hat Nailbiter (7.8%) - imperial stout aged 18 months, according to the pourer, will be available as Thumbsucker in early spring
  
• Rock Bottom Framboise - a much more sour Lambic-style brew than I would have expected from this subpar chain brewpub
  
• Rogue Smoke - just an excellent smokey amber/brown ale
  
• Cantillon Vigneronne - a grape lambic, as delicious as all of Cantillon's beers
  
• Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine (9.6%) - this was the 2001 vintage, and was probably my favorite beer I had all night. Well, except for the Utopias, but that goes without saying
  
• Smuttynose Oak Aged Barleywine (11.25%) - really delicious, the oak barrel contributed a lot of flavor
  

So, you probably think that I was pretty drunk after all of those beers. You're right. But I wasn't nearly as drunk as Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams - his speech was hilarious. His motivation for creating Utopias? He wanted a beer that he could set on fire. You could really tell that he was a beer lover at heart, which may not be obvious from the slick marketing campaign that SA runs these days, with their emphasis on Sammy Light. I just wish some of their more adventurous beers could make it into bottles, and that Utopias could cost $15. Anyone who is in the area should make plans to hit the Beeradvocate.com Belgian Beer Fest in the fall. If this festival was any indication, that one should be incredible.